Could Myspace.Com Threaten Your Career?

Keeping your professional distance/To-Touch-or-Not-Touch. Retrieved December 8, 2009 from

Could MySpace.com threaten your career?

by Christy Hickman, staff counsel

Special networking sites have grown enormously in popularity and have become a communication hub for people of all ages, especially for college-age adults.

Many college students graduate and become educators, but with all the new responsibilities of becoming a productive member of society, some fail to give any thought to their accounts on networking sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com. What may have once been a forum where you could establish friendships and romantic relationships is now a potential topic for schoolhouse gossip and questions about your professionalism. If you have a personal account on such a site, check the content to protect yourself from discipline, discharge, or a sanction against your licensure.

Being a good role model is your professional responsibility

Under Iowa law, teachers can be terminated only for "just cause." In the case of Briggs v. Board of Directors of the Hinton Community School District, 282 N.W.2d 740 (Iowa 1979), the Iowa Supreme Court first defined the term "just cause." According to the Court, a "just cause is one which directly or indirectly significantly and adversely affects what must be the ultimate goal of every school system: high quality education for the district's students. It relates to job performance including leadership and role model effectiveness." School districts have successfully terminated teachers because of conduct that severely impacted their ability to be an effective leader and role model.

Does the content of your networking account threaten your ability to be a leader among your staff members or a role model for your students? If yes, you are exposing yourself to possible discipline or even termination.

You may also expose yourself to sanctions against your licensure. Ethical standards set out by the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners do not prohibit practitioners from using social networking sites. They do, however, require practitioners to "provide conditions that are conducive to teaching and student learning" and "protect[ing] students from conditions harmful to learning." Postings that could be construed to indicate an educator's disregard for student safety and learning could be an invitation for a licensure complaint.

Further, inappropriate communication with a student using a social networking site is a violation of licensure standards and provides an easily accessible paper trail of any inappropriate conduct.

Students and administrators can find you on the Internet

Don't be fooled into a false sense of security and privacy when you post personal information. Your Internet postings can be all too public. Search capabilities allow people to quickly locate your information and postings with minimal information, like locale (Cedar Rapids, for instance) and profession (teacher), if you provide it. It is misguided to assume your information will be lost in the sea of information that is the Internet.

Take action and be cautious

Social networking sites, by their nature, require users to provide a certain amount of personal information. One survey asked, "In the past month have you stolen anything?" and "Have you ever shoplifted?"

The depth of information provided by an educator can put his reputation and possibly his career at risk. Share no information about personal use of drugs and alcohol or unethical or criminal behavior. Also avoid sharing any kind of information of a sexual nature, including inappropriate or provocative photos.

Like any aspect of your personal life, keep your life on the Internet as private as possible and use caution when uninvited eyes could access your information. If you have questionable material posted to your social networking site, remove it immediately and consider the following if you continue to maintain an account:

Share very little personal information and remember the Internet is a public forum.
Limit access to your account to those users you know and do not allow students to access your personal account.
Post only information that you would allow to be seen by parents, students, co-workers, and your boss.
Do not communicate with students on social networking sites and limit personal communication with students outside the school setting in order to maintain that necessary professional distance.
Realize that information and pictures can be downloaded and saved by others even after you have removed them from your site.

If you have questions or concerns about the content of your social networking account, contact your UniServ Director for a second opinion.

Retrieved December 8, 2009, from